Chapter 10
Alex proceeded forward with caution. It chilled him to think that his enemy might already be setting up enemy bases within the city to facilitate a bloody coup, and he couldn’t think of a better target than this JiangHu base, which was clearly far more extensive than any single manor.
No doubt it was connected to multiple fortified establishments and could serve as a choice base of operations for who knew how many enemy soldiers.
He couldn’t deny the anxious prickle in his gut, facing an unknown threat without Gold-tier Strength or access to his extremely useful gates. And he would have to do it while watching out for a teenage kitsune who couldn’t have been any older than Yinzi had been, when they had first met.
Alex pushed aside his worries before exchanging a nod with Lini, knowing that it was too late to second-guess himself. His friend was in danger, and there was no way he was letting this child go hunting for her mother alone.
Really there was only one path they could take, and that was forward.
So they did, quickly darting for the main corridor in tandem.
It was bare of all ornamentation, with only shadows from sporadically placed oil lamps to give any shelter from prying eyes that thankfully weren’t around at that moment.
Though the tension he felt worsened with how well he could sense and hear so many soldiers around him.
The entire base thrummed with the low bustle of a military camp echoing through the corridors, even if most of the reinforced doors they passed were closed.
Alex didn’t know about Lini, but all sorts of alarms were going off in his head.
There was no way he’d think this a simple purple pavilion operation or the like, with all these safeguards and fallbacks.
Whatever its original purpose, it had clearly been co-opted by what he was increasingly sure was at least a splinter of Dongfang Hong’s former forces.
So the last thing Alex wanted to do was risk alarming an entire hive of hot-blooded soldiers.
He reaffirmed to himself that this mission was of stealth and reconnaissance.
He certainly didn’t want to risk getting overwhelmed with no clear exit plan or backup contingency, or have a fumble at his end put Lini or her mother in unnecessary peril.
If Nili was in friendly negotiations with a corrupt Chaoxiang, the last thing he wanted to do was blow her cover and risk an entire hidden regimen trying to cut down Alex and an unprepared Nili.
At least he’d had the forethought to make full use of both his odd storage space and Water Qi affinities to remove all traces of his earlier kills, which should hold up to at least a cursory inspection before he, Nili, and her daughter fled for their lives.
Alex frowned as the corridor forked off just ahead, keeping ever aware of the rooms he was passing, most especially those that contained warm bodies or supplies, his Qi Perception and Wind affinity revealing so many secrets.
Then the faint trod of leather boots seemed to echo like thunder to his hypersensitive ears as a pair of men made their way down the central corridor.
Alex wasted no time, grabbing a startled Lini’s hand and darting into the nearest storage room he had sensed. He was relieved that she hadn’t argued his call or taken offense that he wanted to be completely out of the soldiers’ line-of-sight, no matter how stealthy she thought she was.
Fortunately, wind-enhanced hearing and quick reflexes had let them both slip out of sight before the pair of soldiers rounded the corner.
“Ready for some fresh meat, Fan?” joked one to the other, eliciting a bark of laughter as the pair continued down the corridor while Alex and his companion remained perfectly still within a room filled with dry rations, spears, suits of lamellar armor, and crossbows.
The latter especially was a troubling sight.
And the look Lini gave him… She knew exactly what such a cache meant and the chilling implications it had for her home.
Alex’s heart was pounding. He was now most definitely in his enemy’s camp, and with Nili still unaccounted for, he had to be careful.
And discreet. He made sure the pair of men were well past his location before slipping into the corner once more.
Lini, with her ears pressed anxiously back into her thick mane of curls, was clenching his wrist like a lifeline.
Alex gently patted her hand while scowling at the distant pair of guards before breaking completely free of the doorway they could dart back into, finding it odd that the pair hadn’t turned to take the route back to the main brothel, but instead walked deeper along the tunnel before slipping through a door at the far end.
The far corridor door abruptly opened, the wind whispering secrets that changed absolutely everything.
“Fresh conscripts acquired, Captain. We’ve now met our quota.”
“Good. Ready them for transport. They all leave tonight.”
Yet what a horrified Alex heard behind the distant curt voices wasn’t the sound of freshly indoctrinated troops fed clever propaganda, now eager to “see the world” as a soldier. No. What he heard were the high-pitched sobs of terrified girls.
Alex’s blood ran cold, just as his ears prickled with laughter he recognized all too well from the opposite end of the corridor.
Nili’s voice, regaling the supposed master of this operation with a fantastical account of how they had found their imaginary cistern, receiving nothing but warm praise in turn.
Lini’s ears perked up, her tense expression easing into a relieved smile. But before she could say a word, Alex placed his finger upon her upper lip, curtly shaking his head.
His thoughts raced as his priorities instantly shifted, now paying only peripheral attention to his friend’s patter, with no signs that this Chaoxiang had done anything untoward at all.
At least, not yet. And had Alex not heard the damning words that had washed over him, had he not just rescued Lini from an act of depravity, he might be forced to wonder if his killings had been justified at all.
But he had. And the looks in the eyes of the girls he had encountered had told painful tales all their own.
And even if they had been but professional actresses sensing unspoken cues and telling him what they thought he wished to hear after watching him take the lives of their clients, the distant sobs had been the furthest thing from planned.
He quickly spun around, Lini gasping and stepping back as she sensed the intensity behind his gaze, the pressure of his foundation that he so often strove to keep in check.
“Lini, I need you to stay here. Will you do this for me? I’ll be back when it’s time to come for your mother, and that’s a promise.”
The young kitsune furrowed her brow. “Alex, I don’t think—” Her words caught off when Alex summoned his fangtian ji from storage. She paled and quickly bowed her head. “It will be as you say, Lieutenant. This lowly disciple will wait here for now.”
“Good.” He didn’t bother parsing her choice of words; he didn’t have time. Not if he was just seconds away from averting fresh tragedy and yet another unforgivable loss of innocence.
Alex’s heart pounded with both dread and outrage as he made his way once more down the corridor. He gave one final warning glare to Lini, who quickly darted back inside the storage room.
He could only pray that she would do as he had instructed, needing all his focus for what was to come.
It was all he could do to hold back his killing fury, fingers tightly squeezing the shaft of his near-indestructible weapon as he approached the door from which he had heard the faintest of despairing cries and soldiers coldly reporting their fate.
He took a steadying breath before pulling open the door to glimpse whatever secrets his enemies had thought safely hidden away.
“Who the hell is he?”
“He shouldn’t be here! Strike him down!”
A pair of alarmed soldiers and their commanding officer turned to glare his way. Yet the killing aura of those Bronze elites was absolutely nothing compared to the towering fury of a Silver forced to confront a scene straight out of his nightmares.
Dozens of young women were muffled and bound, shaking with fear and exhaustion.
Clearly innocent, clearly terrified, forced to look on as one of their number had her ropes cut by naked steel and was just seconds away from being forced to endure torments that would scar her for life.
Torments that it was damned obvious that every single one of these women would be forced to endure for the rest of what would no doubt be short, horrifically miserable lives.
The trio of glaring men shouted meaningless words that were drowned out by the furious roaring in Alex’s ears as he channeled his fury in the only way available to him.
Several girls blinked, the young women huddling on the ground before him barely had time to flinch, so fast did Alex’s weapon flicker.
The girls were spattered by nothing more than a handful of crimson drops as he darted forward, catching falling bodies and tumbling heads, making them all disappear so fast that hardly any effluvia struck the girls at all.
Almost as if those monsters had never been there at all.
And then it was done.
The room was now filled only with girls sobbing in fear, or looking his way with dread, confusion, or desperate hope.
Alex did his best to calm his fury, struck by the sharp stench of sweat, urine, feces, and terror as he solemnly bent down to soothe the shaken and still sobbing girl who had come so close to being violated.
“It’s all right. It’s done. They’ll never be able to hurt you again.”
The girl keened and rocked herself, refusing to look him in the eye.
One girl, perhaps more resourceful than the others, had somehow undone her hand bindings and chose that moment to tear free her gag.
“Eternal Disciple, please save us!”